PHEASANT. 1 1 



■ leaves: it is usually placed in woods in some clump of thick brush or underwood or in 

 a tuft of the long coarse grass so often found in such situations ; clover fields are however 

 not uncommonly selected, and afford good shelter. The number of eggs varies from ei°-ht 

 or ten to fourteen, and occasionally even as many as sixteen or eighteen. It is found that 

 the nearer the Pheasants approach domestication, the smaller is the average number of 

 eggs in each nest; while the less they are interfered with, the more regularly do they 

 lay from fourteen to sixteen eggs each. 



In preserves, nests will nevertheless, sometimes be found with an unusual number of 

 eggs; these are generally considered to result from more than one Hen Pheasant laying 

 in the same nest. This is the more probable, as the eggs of even entirely wild birds 

 have occasionally been found deposited in the nest of one of a different species; and 

 Pheasants' eggs also have, been met with in the nest of a Partridge. 



The eggs of the Pheasant are in length about one inch and three-quarters, by about 

 one inch and a half in breadth ; they are of one uniform colour, a very pretty olive 

 brown, which has a particularly chaste and pleasant effect. 



The natural instinct' of self-preservation guides the Pheasant to avoid, as much as possible, 

 running to its place of concealment, which would necessarily leave a track as well as 

 scent. It will accordingly very generally, on ending its flight, drop suddenly into the 

 spot it has chosen for its hiding-place; and this is more particularly the case with the 

 female Tvhen sitting, and by this admirable instinct she is thus able to preserve her eggs 

 from the prowling Fox or Carrion Crow. 



The Hen Pheasant, when leaving her nest voluntarily, covers her nest with leaves, 

 etc., which secures them from the prying eyes of the Carrion Crow, Magpie, or Jay. 

 "When disturbed, however, this is of course omitted, but on these occasions she leaves the 

 nest with extreme reluctance, and we have on several occasions seen her almost allow 

 herself to be caught by the hand before she would take to flight. The young birds are 

 hatched from the end of May to the beginning of July, and remain under the mother's 

 protection till the end of August, or early in September, when they commence moulting, 

 and assuming the plumage of the adult; having completed this by about the middle of 

 October, they can only be known to be young birds by the shortness of their spurs. 



The eggs of the Pheasant are very readily hatched under domestic poultry, and the 

 kind which is most in request for this purpose is the small Bantam with smooth legs; 

 they make excellent mothers, and this method of rearing young Pheasants is very valuable 

 where the eggs have been exposed in mowing, or are deposited so near any thoroughfare 

 as to endanger their being found. Poachers generally deal largely in these eggs, and at 

 the period of incubation should be closely watched. Young Pheasants that have been 

 hatched in this way, as we may say, artificially, require to be supplied plentifully with 

 insect food, such as ants' eggs, of which they are very fond, woodlice, earwigs, beetles, 



